19 Ford
Torino Talledega NASCAR Stock Car - Donnie Allison
As one might
guess by looking at this site,one might realize that I appreciate history a bit,
and that also goes for NASCAR. I saw this kit in the local craft store, and
thought, "Might be an interesting piece to do", but it ended up being a 6 month
project.
When I first
started building it, I was impressed by the way the kit was packaged. The body
was shielded with cardboard, everything was bagged, and seemed to be in
excellent shape. I was however, wrong about this. I started on the chassis
first, and this went together with a minimum of BS. but when I got to the body,
well lets just say that although the body was well-packaged, it was not in the
condition I might have expected. The nose had a severe droop in it that I did
not feel comfortable trying to straighten. Thankfully, Polar Lights was VERY
helpful in getting me a replacemnt. Now THAT'S customer service! AMT could learn
a bit from Polar Lights here.
The chassis did
need some changes made, but this was only because I had decided to build the kit
as close to my references as I could. Those references were pictures of the car
as it sits in the Motorsports Museum at The Talledega Speedway in Alabama. (that's
why there's no gas cap on it, the museum car doesn't have one either!) I did
change the shape of the seat, and added a better fire extinguisher
bottle.
Here is the 1:1
at the museum.
Side Shot. I did
slightly mess up the exhaust exit location, but it looked so good, I decided to
leave it as it was.
Rear 3/4. The decals
were a bit of an issue. They seemed a bit dry, and were sometimes diffucult to
get on without tearing them, which I did do once or twice. The kit called fro
Testors MM Chevy engine red for the body which with a little tweaking, worked
pretty well.
Chassis shot. I did
add some Detail Master seat belts, braided hose, and distributor
kit.
Surprisingly enough,
the Goodyear tire decals worked pretty well, after I treated the tires to a
dullcote finish first. A little Bare Metal foil around the windows completes the
look. By the way, I used Deatil master seat belt hardware to simulate the
strike plates for the hood pins.
This kit was an
interesting experience to build. The folks at Polar Lights were great, the deals
were pretty good, and the kit was decent when finished.
